Towards a Secure Quantum Communication Implementation for OSI Layer 2 Devices
Themba Ngobeni, Boniface Kabaso, Amlan Mukherjee · 2020
The threat caused by the ubiquitous nature of the internet and quantum-computer-assisted cryptanalysis amongst the networked devices, organizations and users seeks a redress within the security community to apply innovative ways in the development of information communication protocols. Quantum teleportation (QT) has emerged as a technology that promise unconditional security and providing new ways to design and develop frameworks that operate based on the principles of quantum physics such as entanglement and no-cloning. This study applied an evaluation approach to empirically investigate the effect of QT on the improvement of networked device communication security on layer 2 using a simulated experiment. Software Defined Network's OpenFlow, Mininet-Wifi and Simulator for Quantum Networks and Channels (SQUANCH) were considered as our coding approach. The empirical evidence revealed that QT has the ability to make it harder for anyone trying to listen-in, eavesdrop or tap into data in-transit. QT despite its known challenges i.e., interference, freespace loss, transmission loss etc., when implemented properly within reasonable scope can improve security for data in-transit. This will become an advantage when designing frameworks to adopt quantum technology for implementation.